Date at Gold Stream :)

Jon and I had to drive to Victoria to return the crash mats we borrowed from PCS, and on the way Jon told me he had a surprise stop for me! He pulled over a Gold Stream and we spent an hour just walking around, taking pictures, and just laughing together. He knows that I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the fall leaves, so he thought I would like this stop - what a sweetie he is! And he was very right! It was so pretty! And it was also a lot of fun!

Most giantess leaf I have ever seen - this island produces leaves unlike anything I have ever seen!

This is us these days - happy and smiley, and just loving each other deeper
I SAT inside this tree, thats how big the hole was! Crazy!

Then we found a BIGGER one! Jake and I hid in there (Jake didnt like it too much and just wanted to get out, but I made him get in with me haha)

Then Jon found one that was super weird - he went INSIDE the tree and was able to stand up. So funny!

Standing by the stream - it was too early for the salmon run. I cant wait to go back and see it then!

Pondering nature as usual. Even Jake is interested in whatever they are looking at - what cute boys they are! Jon's love for the outdoors, and his amazement for nature makes me love him so much! He gets excited about things like streams. How cute is that!

While they were studying the stream, I was sitting on the log just taking everything in.

It was a perfect afternoon that I will remember! The times we spend together, just hanging out and having fun are my favorite. This whole year I have loved being married, but it seems like lately we have reached a new level of happiness and contentness, and it makes me SO excited for our future. Once again, I am just such a lucky girl.

Fall Teen Retreat!

My oh my! What can I even say?! This weekend was AMAZING. It was full of fun, craziness, rad games, carnivals, lots of food, and awesome worship time! We broke the record for the LARGEST camp at at Imadene at 132 campers!!! Jon and I ran program together, and that was such a blast. It was so good to really work together, and be able to use our strengths, and show what a powerhouse couple we can be working together!! The nights were REALLY late, so we were exhausted afterwards, but oh boy was it ever worth it!!! Everyone from Katrina (who directed!) to the cabin leaders, to the kitchen staff, to our staff (Chris poured so much into this weekend as well!!!) just did such an amazing job. It was so good to have people around who care about camp, care about the campers, the ministry of camp, and the future of Imadene. It just reengerized Jon and I and reminded us once again why we love youth and why we love camp!! Here were some highlights:

Jon took this at lunchtime of the campers - look at how packed it was in our dining room!!! Everyone just had such a good time the whole time!!

Me and my beautiful friend Sharon at the carnival on Saturday night! (we both ate WAY to much candy, but enjoyed every minute of it!!)
I got my face painted by Malea - it was very cute and carnival-ie!

While I was doing that, Jon was doing what he does best - holding the mike and keeping the party going! Here he is organizing a pie eating contest

This is a picture of some of the booths at our carnival

These next few were stolen from the camp website, but I loved them! This is a shot from up high - you can see our swing in the background as well as all the lights!

Jon and I having fun in the photo booth that was set up for the night - this was our "WE ARE SO STOKED THE CARNIVAL IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING!!" face.

This was one of my favorite moments of the weekend - after our fireside chapel with the campers, I asked the LIT's that we had up working for the weekend (Marika, Lisa, Jacob, Cam, Natasha, Ava, and Lucas) to gather in our living room. The band had just played the song "Hosanna" and the lyrics that stuck out to me were "I see a generation, rising up to take their place, with selfless faith" and my mind immediately went to these guys. I spent a whole summer getting to know them, and loving them, and I seen first hand just how selfless their faith is. And I seen them step up as leaders on this weekend, and really be a generation who is rising up to take their place. I am just so proud of these guys, and love them so much, and want so many good things for them. I am honored that the Lord has allowed me to play some sort of role in their life. So this is us, talking and praying together. A really special moment!

This was taken on the last day of camp of all the campers and staff - see Jon and I at the front?! This weekend just left me and Jon with such a good feeling - we are doing good work, and the Lord REALLY cares about this place. He IS using us to carry out His work, and it just so exciting! There were a couple of times were I had that "WOW" feeling - the one that I always get the saturday night of Youth Quake because I had spent months and months preparing for this event, and God is so much bigger than I ever imagined and the kids are just opening worshipping and breaking down in front of each other. That feeling was there this weekend too - I worked hard, and Jon and and Chris worked even harder to make this happen - yet it is so not about any of us. It is about those youth who have camp as a safe place where they can come to know the Lord. It is about those kids worshiping the God we love, whether it is with their hands raised in the front row, or the ones quietly singing the back row. I love these kids, and I do not even know all of them. I just love camp and what it stands for, and I love that I have a husband who is even more passionate than I am. I pray that Lord allows us to be a part of more "WOW" moments. An incredible weekend it was indeed.

Thanksgiving Weekend

On sunday Jon and I got up early and started prepping our turkey and making stuffing to put in the oven and anxiously waiting for the Lampard's to get here. They arrived around lunchtime and we spent the day being silly, walking around camp, and just laughing and chatting. Then Jon and Lois headed up the cooking committee and got everything organized for dinner and dinner was DEEEEELICIOUS! Then we spent the night watching the amazing race (love that show!) and playing games. It was fun to have them all sleepover (except Aimee who had too much homework - hopefully next time!). Then today we got up and ate breakfast and we all played Buzz word - talk about crazy!!! But it was so much fun, and such a good weekend. The more family get togethers we have, the more I feel like part of the family, which is such a good feeling! I love holidays and thanksgiving has always been one of my favorites - third only to christmas and my birthday haha! I was very thankful this thanksgiving to be surrounded by a family who has taken me in and loves and accepts me :) I was also thankful that Jon and I are able to have them up at our house because of the incredible ways God has blessed us with this house, and all the room!! Very thankful thanksgiving :)

Me and my beautiful sis in law Care - the only two who choose to be Lampards - we are either really crazy, or just really lucky

Family shot! Took a while to get this, but it turned out well!
Luke and Care you make my heart swell - I am just so proud of you guys and how hard you work for your love! You inspire me constantly and I love you a LOT!

Favorite picture of the season so far! I am married to the most wonderful man in the entire world. Seriously.

What handsome boys!

Jon's favorite pasttime is playing with Makenna - he is such a good uncle! And she is the cutest thing in the whole world!

The beautiful Lampard ladies! I love you each dearly and am so glad that I can call you my family!!!

We took everyone to try out the maze we have been working on, and it was so funny to watch them all try to get out! Once Care did it once and figured it out, she took Makenna with her, and the girl LOVED it - she didnt want to get out!! This picture is completly and udderly adorable!

Aimee told us about this pushing/slapping game and it was funny to watch the boys battle it out!

She also got us all leg wrestling - we all wrestled, but this picture made me laugh the most - Aimee vs. Lois

As you can see, the weekend was truly wonderful. I know I have said it before, but we are just so incredibly blessed. The only thing missing was the piece of my heart that was in Alberta with my mom and brother. This was my very first thanksgiving without them and I definately missed them. It was hard knowing they were all together and I am so far away - I just feel like I have missed so much that I am barely a part of the family anymore - but I also know that as soon as I go there, I will feel right at home, because where they are will always be home! I love you mom and Brandon and we miss you terribly!! But we also love you Lampards and we are so glad we got to spend the holidays with you - my very first thanksgiving with the Lampards was a success!

Day of cleaning and re-arranging

On this very productive Saturday, Jon and I slept in (up at nine of course... Jon is incapable of sleeping later than that!) and got up and looked around our house. Because the Lampard clan is coming over tomorrow for thanksgiving dinner (and staying over night!) we knew we had lots of work to do with cleaning our house and making sure it was all in order for them. For a while now I have been wanting to start on making our duplex really our home. If we are here for a a while I want it to feel comfortable and like it is home! But the problem is that because no one has lived here in a quite a while, it has become almost a storage unit for all things that camp does not really want, and does not know what to do with! But full of ambition, I convinced Jon that today was a GREAT day to start with our renovations!!!

We started in our living room and re-arranged EVERYTHING! We got rid of a couch (who the heck needs THREE couches in their house of TWO people?!), and changed how we had everything. We even added the rocking chair that we got from Tim and Lois that I LOVE into our living room, and we hung up my Canuck jersey on the wall - I know lots of women would never let a jersey be hung in their living room, but it was a present to me from the Lampards and has my name on it, and its special! And I like that Jon cares so much about something - hes supportive of all my insane craziness, so this is the least I can do for him. The open way we have it set up now just makes it SO much more homey and cute, and I love it!!

Next was "room 4" - the little room with two single beds in it. Again, who needs a room with two single beds in it, when you have two other rooms with queen size beds in them, not including your own?!! So we got rid of one of the beds, and made the other bed all warm and cute (I used all my bedding from when I lived in the dorm - it made me smile!), and then we set up a desk that was just sitting in the other bedroom in two pieces. So now we have an "office" - we even moved our book shelf into that room, along with all our photoalbums and everything. Now we can set up our printer and I can have a space to put all my scrapbooking stuff!!! The room looks GREAT and I am really happy with it. I also want to get a rug for the floor (its gross laminate right now) and hang up our college degrees on the wall, and paint the one wall. But it is MUCH better.

Then we went into "room 2". This room is not that bad - its the best out of the three! But we added in a small table and a lamp and an alarm clock - little things to make it a bit warmer. This room has a really weird closet - its like make of plywood and just put up. So we tidied the things in the closet, but on our next day off we plan on cleaning out that closet (there is ANOTHER bed in the closet - its a small todder bed, but still! Seriously the bed situation in this house boggles me haha!) and taking down the plywood and not having a closet in there. If we are still here when we have a baby, I would like to spice the room up, and we would probably buy, or Jon would make a wardrobe to put in there. But for now, I just want it to look warm and homey, not shabby, so that when we have company they can be comfortable and feel good. So the makeshift closet has got to go soon.

The next room we went into was ours. We cleaned it all out and got rid of a lot of junk (it is AMAZING how fast junk piles up!!) and re-organized our closet, and our shoerack. We took out the antique bench we had in there (another piece we got from Tim and Lois that I love!) and put it in the living room, and put new shelves in where the bench was to hold my sweaters. We then re-arranged all the furniture in our room. It looks good, but I am not sure yet if I love it. But Jon does love it, so thats good!! Its a change, and that is what I was going for, so all is good.

After all the moving around, Jon made us dinner, and is now watching the first Canuck game of the year, while I am baking buns and making cookies for tomorrow!! It was a busy busy day, but lots of fun! I love the days that we get to spend together, and making our house more ours feels really good. We are now all set for company and to enjoy a wonderful thanksgiving!!!

A busy week with wonderful company!

This week we had a guest group in from Qualicum, a 120 grade 8's, so Marika and Lisa came up to help Jon and I run program for them. In between running climbing wall, challenge course, and (our favorite - not!) archery for them, we worked on our newest project - a cardboard maze! Jon has been working endlessly on this maze for our Teen Retreat - for a guy who has never made a carboard maze before, he sure is doing a stellar job on this one! Marika is great at making these mazes, so it was great having her brains up here to help, while Lisa and I added our rad personalities to the group haha.

My beautiful Marika sitting in the maze taping up the walls!

Lovely and oh so sweet Lisa working hard
I love that we work together!

Jon standing at the top of the cardboard slide, making sure it is all stable!

A shot of the right side of the maze - looks sweet eh! Makes me proud of my husband :)

I was working hard before this picture... haha!

This was not from this weekend, but I wanted to make sure I got a picture of this incredible girl in this blog! I love our chats, and I love her soft heart. Lisa I just love you A LOT!

Marika and I ended our few days together by going on a crazy self photo shoot. We learned how to set the self timer on my new camera!

This one is my favorite! But it took us about 27 tries before we got it! haha! But it was fun anyways!

I was being hardcore, she was being her normal smily self.

I love our craziness, our laughs, the way we can just be friends! You make my life so much more full of life, and I love you lots as well Miss Welle!!

New Property Dedication

Last Saturday Camp hosted a property dedication for our beautiful new property that camp now owns. This mountain here is now proudly owned by Camp Imadene, and we are so excited about the potential that this could hold for camp!

This is Jon talking at the dedication. He shared with the crowd how much he cares about camp, and how camp has already made use of the property. As he was talking, his heart just shined through. He has such a big heart, and such a huge vision and passion for this property, and it just makes me so proud of him. Listening to him talk even made me excited about the mountain and the future all over again.
A shot of the property where the dedication was held...this property is so gorgeous

And another shot... the beautiful lake!

Loving the fall leaves!

Camp lately is so beautiful that it just takes my breath away. The fall leaves, and all the colors and the amazing sky is all just overwhelmingly gorgeous. So I have been going camera crazy (we spent my entire last paycheck on a new camera - yikes! But well worth it!) and taking lots of pictures of our beautiful home. So so so so pretty.

Falling more in love everyday.
" I lift my eyes up, up to the mountain. Where does my help come from? My help comes from you, Maker of Heaven, Creator of the Earth" - a daily visual reminder

View from the office that we work out of

We are so blessed to live in a place like this, where God's amazing creation is totally all around us. Although the quietness of this place is sometimes hard to get used to, I really to love do tranquility of it all. I love going on walks in the evening with Jon and Jake and crunching all the leaves, holding hands with my husband, feeling my nose start to get cold, and seeing all the pretty leaves falling. I really love fall - a time for fresh starts and re-energizing ourselves. We are blessed.

Mexico!

We have been home from our trip for a week and half now, but I am just blogging about it now! Talk about being behind! But our trip was AMAZING! It was crazy beautiful, super hot, and just really relaxing. Most days we slept in, went to breakfast, then sat by the pool for a few hours, walked on the beach, walked around Playa Del Carmen, and just chatted and laughed the whole time. I read a couple books - even Jon got his whole way through a book!! I was able to stick to my work-out routine, although my eating was not as "clean" as it was supposed to be! Jon and I both got crazy bad sunburns, but all those hours in the sun was so worth it :)

Jon spent a lot of time playing beach volleyball and water polo with the entertainment team (our favorite was a guy named Rolando) and other hotel guests while I watched and read my book

This is my sunburn on day one. OUCH!

Jon participated in ping pong tournament one day and he WON!!!! YAY JON!!! The fanny pack and the awesome hat was his prize. We found really sweet chairs right on 5th Ave in the middle of Playa Del Carmen while we were shopping, so we took a break!

This was a fun day! Lots of walking and talking!

One day we went on a crazy adventure day. We went biking and hiking through the JUNGLE and we went rapelling into a cave, and then played on inner tubes. We then went on a CRAZY 4x4 drive on this wild jeep, and then went snorkelling into a cenote. It was a VERY cool day. Jon was in heaven all day long! I was having a great time until we were snorkelling and I started to freeze - I REALLY hate being cold. Then I looked up in the cenote and seen BATS. Hundreds and hundreds of bat. I was so done after that - sick! But it really was a crazy and exhausting day!! I am so glad that we did it :)

Unfortunately, we decided to test out whether our camera was still water proof or not (I dropped and broke a piece off a while back) and we found out that it was indeed not water proof anymore. Not only that, but the water broke the camera, and we werent able to take any more pictures after this day!! We bought a disposable, but we have yet to put those pictures onto CD and upload them! So this is the little small taste of our wonderful vacation! It was much needed, and just amazing. We came back much more rested, healthier and happier!